Emergency Response

immediate expert assistance

Serious incidents can occur any hour of the day or night. Recognizing this, it is Eastham Watson’s long-standing practice to have two attorneys on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year to ensure that clients have access to professional assistance whenever an emergency situation arises. Our phone is answered 24 hours a day and all of our on-call attorneys have the necessary Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) needed to access vessels and terminals in the area.

The members of a ship’s crew are experts at navigation and cargo matters – not responding to the legal issues that arise out of a casualty. Eastham Watson has extensive experience with being an on-the-scene resource to its clients in matters including collisions, groundings, spills, explosions, cargo disputes and serious personal injury accidents. The firm stands ready to provide legal counseling and to assist with the investigation, preservation of evidence and advocacy needed in the wake of a casualty. The firm also has experience working within the framework of the Incident Command System, which is the response management system used by most government agencies, including the United States Coast Guard, the National Transportation Safety Board, the EPA and OSHA.

Having an experienced maritime lawyer readily available to attend and counsel on-site helps protect your interests in the immediate aftermath of an incident. It also means that you are more certain to identify and gather the evidence that could be needed to defend or prosecute claims arising out of a casualty. Crucial evidence available at the time of an incident can disappear over time if not properly preserved. This is especially true for foreign vessels engaged in world-wide trade. Having an experienced maritime lawyer in attendance who is aware of what that evidence is, how to gather it, and how to preserve it is critical.